Earlier in the year we purchased an experience package for a three course meal in London (plus cocktail) and a trip up the shard, both of which we will be reviewing separately.

The biggest question for us was, how are we travelling down and where are we staying. Again, that’s another story by itself, so we will skip that for now.

As you might know, we generally use Booking.com for our hotel arrangements and on this occasion we finally decided to stay at the London Sunborn Yacht Hotel, moored adjacent to the Excel centre in the heart of the Docklands.

To be honest, I’ve been drawn to this hotel since it was first introduced, but it’s always been slightly too expensive for us and in the past we have considered it too far off the beaten track. But an amazing midweek deal being offered (along with a free upgrade to Classic King river view) meant we couldn’t turn it down – it was cheaper than the Holiday Inn Express North Greenwich (which had been our first choice) and also a couple of other budget hotels in the same area.

And of course, we couldn’t pretend the thought of staying on a luxury yacht didn’t have a little extra appeal to us.

Now I’ve found out since our stay that I was totally mistaken in thinking this was a converted cruise ship – far from it. The Sunborn Yachts are built specifically as floating hotels, and although they may appear to be fully sea worthy even down to the fitted radars, they have no engines and had to be towed to their dock where they are secured to concrete pillars and don’t move at all – so no chance of being seasick during your stay.

But once onboard, it’s easy to be fooled into believing you are on a luxury cruise liner waiting to set sail to some exotic destination. With it’s exotic brass, chrome and sparkling crystal staircase as the central feature as you take the lift up to the reception, and it’s beautiful large deluxe cabins, you are treated to an elegance that you will not find in many similar ranked premium hotels in the city – in fact, we have stayed in some of the more famous brand central hotels and found their rooms to be small, sometimes old and tired and often very poorly spec’d in comparison with the Sunborn.

The room was full of plush carpets, polished wood, a decent sized TV, a HUGE bathroom with large walk-in shower, plenty of wardrobe space, and of course, the usual safe, tea making facilities, coffee machine, iron (you wont find one of THOSE on a cruise ship) and the NIGEST mirrors I’ve ever seen in a room. And not on the ceiling which is a definite bonus!

Of course, we love our cruises so I guess we were always going to feel a little awestruck and also feel quite at home in the quasi-nautical environment, but nevertheless the hotel delivered on all fronts for us.

Food and beverages are served in either the main restaurant or the bar behind the reception. As we had arrived quite late for the first of our two night stay, we gave the main restaurant a miss (plus it was quite pricey in our opinion – although probably on par with many London dining venues) and instead we chose to eat in the bar, where we had two reasonably priced and very tasty chicken Caesar salads. The menu was reasonable in terms of choices, and all the food we saw coming out to other tables looked well presented and good value (except maybe for the £12 bread and olives?)

Drinks again were London prices, although the cocktails were exceptionally pricey in my opinion – £18 for a cocktail and a whopping £9.50 for a mocktail – I don’t see the justification in that price for what is in effect a soft drink. And don’t forget the 12.5% service charge on top of the bar bill!

Breakfast is served in the main dining room and although I’ve read a few odd complaints on tripadvisor and booking.com, we found the quality of breakfast on both days to be exceptional. There was plenty of choice, cold and hot buffets, pastries, cereals, toast etc.

The food was hot, fresh and plentiful on both days – and although people have complained about cold plates which were adjacent to the hot buffet, there was a separate hot plate warmer just prior to the buffet if you preferred a warm plate – maybe people missed this, I certainly did the first morning.

We had breakfast at 8:15 on the Wednesday morning and 8:45 on the Thursday, and it was quiet on the Wednesday and becoming busy on the Thursday, so our advice is get there early before the crowds arrive. I imagine the weekend is a quite busy time so again, the earlier the better.

The bar wasn’t overly busy and I went down for a drink on my own on the Thursday evening after Sue had turned in for the night, and it was virtually deserted.

There’s a nice outside area off the bar where you can sit and watch the cable cars in the distance, but unfortunately it was quite miserable and chilly on the Thursday evening and not really fit to be sat outside.

Checkout the next morning was simple, and we were soon on our way.

A word about parking – although booking.com says no hotel parking, that’s not strictly true as there IS disabled parking right outside the hotel which we discovered by accident and arranged access the day before. Access is via a controlled barrier and you have to arrange this with the hotel prior to arrival.

Alternatively, the Excel Orange car park is the next closest, about 10-15 mins walk I believe, as I don’t think there is a direct route through the centre to the hotel and I think you would have to walk around the outside somehow – it’s the only thing that the Excel website doesn’t make crystal clear – i.e. pedestrian access to and from it.

Custom House DLR station is 5 mins walk and the IFScloud cable cars (formerly the Emirates Air cable cars) is 5 mins the opposite direction, which takes you over to North Greenwich and the O2 arena, close to North Greenwich tube station, local bus routes and also the Uber Boat, with stops all the way up the Thames, so the hotel actually is very well connected.

The hotel is just off the A13 if travelling by car, disabled access is via Western Gateway otherwise follow the signs for the Excel parking. Note, the venue is within the ULEZ charging zone, so unless your car is ULEZ exempt – check on their website – you will have a daily charge to pay on top of any parking.

That all sounds splendid – but any downsides? Well, apart from the prices in the restaurant, our only slight beef would be the lack of a proper disabled / accessible toilet. Apparently the toilets on floor 5 were wider and easy to enter with a wheelchair, but it still meant I have to endure my pet hate of walking into the ladies toilet with Sue, which always seems a little strange and embarrassing for me.

But when that’s the only thing on offer…

Will we stay again? Absolutely, we loved the ambience, the sizeable well fitted rooms – sorry, cabins – (and you’ll never find a cruise line with standard outside cabins as large and as plush as these), and the fairly easy access on the DLR to the city centre.

Next time, if the price is right, we will try a balcony cabin and see if the addition of a balcony is worth the additional expense, considering that you can’t see much and the ship doesn’t go anywhere!

Rob and Sue